DEMARVA'S OLD CHURCHES AS OF 1968

DELMARVA PLACES 0F WORSHIP

A TOUR

Keystone AAA Automobile Club

An Account of Old Worship Houses in 1968

From the 1638 Olde Swedes Heliga Trifaldighets Kyrka, In New Castle County on the Delaware, to the 1742 Hungers Episcopal Church of Virginia's Eastern Shore, is right near 500 miles

and full of anciant chuches. This is an account of them .

Ashbury Methodist Church , Wilmington, dedicated 1789 by the Bishop Francis Ashbury,

which in it's cemetery lies the Revolutionary War hero Allen McLane. Close by is the 1740 Park

Drive Presbyterian Church, now the home of Delaware Colonial Dames. At East Seventh Street is

Old Swedes, know also as Heliha Trefaldighes Kyrka, or, Holy Trinity Chuch of 1699 built by Swedish Lutherans and consecrated Trinity Sunday, June 4, 1699.

South to New Castle Towne, overlooking a 'Greens which was the site of a 1672 log fort , is the 1706 Immanuel Church. At Second Street is the 1707 Old Presbyterian Church , bult when the town

of New Castle was a port of immigration, visited by new Americans to give thanks for the safe voyage.

To the west in Maryland on Old Post Road, at Calvert Cross Roads, is a 1724 Brick Meeting House which William Smallwood , an officer of the Continentals of the Revolution , once used as a hospital.

At Cooch's Bridge, is Welsh Tract Bapist Church , founded in 1701 by a congregation of 16

formed in Wales and came as group to settled a 40,000 acre William Penn Grant. Here Washington and Cornwallis troops 'did' battle in 1777.

St. Mary Anne's Episcopal Church, North East, Maryland, built in 1742 when The Church

of England was the Established Church of Maryland. The church yard has grave markers of early Indian converts.

Old St. Ann's Episcopal Church, 1768, Middletown, Delaware. The inerior has original

Box Pews and Palladien window. Out side are a 200 year Oak Tree, boxwood and ivy brought from England.

Old Bohemia, or St. Francis Xavier Jusuit Church . Founded in 1704 as one of the earlist

Catholic establishments in the English Colonies. Located at Warwick, Maryland, two miles down

a country road.

At Kennedysville, Maryland is Shrewsbury Episcopal Church, an 1832 church,

At Chestertown is the Emmanuel Episcopal , established 1772, where the conference of

1780 accepted the name ' Protestant Episcopal Church' to relpace 'The Church of England' in the

Provinces.

Near Langford, Maryland is St. Pauls Episcopal Church, built 1713, at the cost of 70,000

pounds of tobacco.

St. Lukes Episcopal Church in Church Hill, Maryland, a 1732 church, distinguished by the

tone of its bricks, a semi circular apse and gambrel roof and lettered panels on each side of the

Chancel.

The Old Wye Church, built 1721, restored 1854, again in 1949.

Near Cordova , Maryland, stands St. Joseph's Catholic whice celebrated it's bicentennal

in 1965. The old church was a Jesuit mission established by Father Joseph Mosley which he built

a brick chapel and dwelling in 1782, under one roof to evade the law against public places of

worship for Catholics.

Old Third Haven Friends Meeting , in Easton, built in 1682, with timbers hewn with a broad axe, and said to be the oldest frame building dedicated to religious meetings still existing in America.

Old Trinity Episcopal at Church Creek, Maryland, which has been traced to before 1690, is

one of the oldest Protestant churches now in use. The recent restoration followed many years of

research and the accomulation of 'old pine' for the interior . The church yard has the graves of the

Carroll Family, including that of Anna Ella Carroll, a good friend, advisor and ghost writer for

Abraham Lincoln.

Old Green Hill Episcopal Church on the way to Salisbury, route 352, dated 1733, is the only remains of a early port of entry. It's brick wall, brick floor, high back family pews and a clerks

desk are original.

Spring Hill Episcopal Church, dates from 1733, west of Salisbury, has orignal and

natural wood panelling.

At Snow Hill we find All Hallows Episcopal, built in 1748 for 120,000 pouds of tobacco.

It is of soft hued brick with distinctive windows rising to the eves.

Manokin Presbyterian, 1785 at Princess Anne, Maryland.

St. Andrews Episcopal Church, also in Princess Anne, built in 1770.

At Hopewell, just below Princess Anne, is St. Peters Church built in 1850, where 'The Methodist Preacher of the Islands” of the Chesapeake Bay, preached his first sermon.

At Rehoboth on the Pocomoke River is the Rehoboth Church, the first Presbyterian Church

in America, built in 1706, and except for some window changes, the brck walls remain as they were laid. In the churchyard at the site of the 1740 Coventry Episcopal, now in ruins across the road, is a bell hanging between two trees , thought to be a gift from Queen Anne.

St. James Episcopal Church at Accomack, a Basilican type building with four fluted Dorie

columns erected in 1828. Also here in town is the Mackemie Presbyterian built in 1838 .

At Pungoteague is St Georges Episcopal Church of 1738.

Hungers Episcopal Church which dates to 1742 . After the Revolution the church was descrated and the lead from the organs pipes was used to make weights for fish nets. The church was

restored in 1851.

In Eastville, Virginia is Christ Episcopal Church built in 1826, but dates to 1614. Eastville, has the oldest standing courthouse in America

Old St. Martins, at Showell, Maryland, brick built in 1859, which is shuttered but has service

once a year in June.

Blackwater Presbyterian at Clarksville, Delaware, organized in 1667 by William Tunnel.

Prince Georges Chapel in Dagsboro, built 1757, still has its original pine interior.

At Broad Creek is Christ Church , a frame structure built in 1771 has its original unpainted

'heart of pine' interior which remains in perfect condition.

In the Indian River Hundred, Delaware's Sussex County, is St. Georges Episcopal Church with an orgional Palladian window, origional box pews, galleries with curved stairs and hand rails built in 1794.

Barratts Chapel, Frederica, Delaware, built in 1780, known as the Cradel of Methodism in

America.

Christ Episcopal Church, Dover, Delaware whose brick structure dates from 1734, and remins the Nave of the Episcopal Church of Delaware. Here is buried a Delaware signer of the Declaration of Independence, Caeser Rodney.

Old Union Methodist south of Odessa bilt in 1847. In Odessa is the Appoquinimink Friends Meeting House, said to be the smallest brick house of worship in America dated to 1785.

North of Odessa, Old Drawyers Presbyterian , built in 1773.

SOURCE: Friday, July 12, 1968, Philadelphia Inquirer